The road was certainly more direct, however it looked like whenever they had left over concrete they just dumped it on this "road". It had the opposite of pot holes, there were large lumps of concrete everywhere that you had to navigate around! But it got us down the hill only to wait for almost a half an hour for her to finally come out the gate.
While we were waiting a lovely (and extremely handsome) Brit was waiting for someone too. Apparently he was surprising his girlfriend, but at customs you have to say where you are going, with whom, a contact number, ect. So she was escorted by security out to the waiting area to see who was picking her up and then she couldn't even hug the poor guy, since goodness knows what might get passed. Then she was taken back inside. The poor guy said "That was not how I was expecting this to go!" Poor thing. His girlfriend still wasn't out when we left with Ama.
I knew it would take a while at the airport so I had already made stewed chicken & lentils for dinner. It was just a matter of warming things up. By the time supper was done it was past 7:30 so there was only time to get Ama slightly unpacked and then the boys headed off to bed.
Tuesday NEWLO was open so we took a drive up the coast to see my work. Mom had no idea it was so far outside of St. George's. It is about a 30-40 minute drive, depending on weather or bus driver. I was really pleased she was able to see where I work and what NEWLO looks like.
Then we headed to a nutmeg factory. OMG. It was a short tour but wow! The building is huge, old and wooden. I can't even imagine how many tons of nutmeg were at various stages of preparation, and this was with 90% of the trees destroyed! Drying racks that went on and on easily for the length of a football feild, with little chalk boards on each end telling you when the nutmeg had been placed there. Wooden rakes were strew about to rake the nutmeg to help it dry and this was all laid out as far as you could see on the second floor! Then it was moved from the racks to a cracking machine that then dropped the nutmeg down a chute. We went down some scary steep wooden stairs to find women sitting around a wooden raised circle where they could open a wooden door and nutmeg would fall out. They would then hand sort it. Once sorted it was tested in a large water tank for quality. If it floats it is high quality if it sank it would be used in perfumes, cosmetics, and medicinal creams. It is then dried again and off to be sorted by size. This is done again by hand over a screen that allows the smaller ones to drop through. Finally it is bagged in 110 pound bags and shipped out. The bags are stenciled by hand with the destination. The only bad thing about the tour was that you couldn't take pictures!
On our way back we headed to Concord Falls, a place I had never been and it was absolutely beautiful. So glad we went and that the sun came out for us.
Enroute we stopped at the fish market and picked a gorgeous tuna for about $16 Canadian, it fed all of us and a neighbour and we had sandwiches the next day. In the afternoon we went to the library where mom donated some supplies and they gave her a tour. I love this library and Oonya who founded it. She is always giving credit to others and encouraging them to take leadership roles, inspiring to see a true leader with a positive vision for her community.
Yesterday was a quieter day with a walk down to the port and a trip to Grand Anse beach. Ama says she feels like she is on vacation, so you can't get any higher compliment than that. She is lucky in that we have time to acclimatize her to the weather, my mother in law will be visiting from Florida so she should be able to adapt more quickly to the warm, warm weather.
Today we are off to see some of the huge homes in Grenada and visit a few beaches. For now Ama and Aiden are sound asleep as it should be when you are on vacation!
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